Tempted By Fae

by Midnight Coven

  “Maybe you’ve always been afraid of making mistakes or of having regrets. Maybe it’s easier to run away than to think about living in regret? Only you can really answer that love, but for fuck’s sake, don’t stew on it tonight.” She laughed, knowing full well I would have sat in front of my mirror, doing exactly that until Kaia came to throw me onto the stage.

  “Why are answers so difficult to come up with? This is the worst.” I laughed and pushed her.

  “Put on something skimpy, and leave answering questions for another time. Tonight is about dancing for him and hopefully about getting laid.” Navi slid her hips from side to side seductively, part of a belly dance routine she was famous for, and glided backward away from me.

  Part of me wished I was sexually confident like her. Now that Arturo was here, I wished that I had bedded a hundred men as Navi had suggested. Still, in reality, I knew I wouldn’t have even if I had the years to do over again.

  I had never wanted any other man except for Arturo. He owned my mind and my body in a way that even I couldn’t fight. What was the point in pretending I would suddenly change and even consider anyone else?

  There wasn’t one. I was clinging to excuses because I was afraid, but it was time to leave that behind me. It was time to get dressed and dance for him.

  My hands trembled as I delicately chose a nearly see-through white dress, covered in pearls. The back opened wide to let my wings free whenever I wanted them, and I knew I would look beautiful for him.

  He had never had a problem keeping his eyes on me before, and tonight certainly wouldn’t be any different. I would own his attention, and once he was under my spell, the clarity it granted him would either secure his desire for me, or we would both finally know that we were never made for each other, and we could bury our fragile love in peace, here in this sanctuary, and move on with our lives.

  Whatever the fated outcome of this tormenting love was to be, it would be determined tonight.

  I heard the final, quivering notes of the vampire with a voice like an angel who performed before me and began to give myself one last pep talk. The time for overthinking was over. There was nothing left to do except go out there, and give it my all.

  The curtain opened and the raven-haired vampire swept past me, a single tear rolling down her cheek as she walked. Her ballads usually reduced the entire audience to tears at the beauty of her voice.

  Normally she would have gotten to me as well. Even though I had heard her songs dozens of times, they rarely failed to move me. Tonight, however, I was too focused on him to hear or see anything else. The blinders were on, and he was pushing everything else away.

  Would he be sitting in the first row just waiting to grab me? Would he be hiding in the back in the shadows? Would he be shocked at my show? What if I disappoint him?

  It was nearly impossible to force myself away from the cycle of those questions, but as I heard the strong baritone voice of our announcer introduce me, I knew that I didn’t have a choice but to shake my head and get into the game.

  As I left the thick, shimmering curtains behind, the mahogany stage unfurled before me like a dark ocean floor. It was easily three times the space that I needed for my act, and usually, it felt a little daunting to be alone up there with such a populated section of people in front of you. Today, however, I appreciated the space. I appreciated that he couldn’t be up here with me, that I had at least this much distance from him.

  They blended in, but the Rouge did have a large population of bodyguards. Not that any of the supernatural creatures performing were unable to take care of themselves, but the bodyguards were mostly there to keep things from interrupting or interfering with the shows.

  Supernatural beings could become obsessed with stage performers in the same way that humans could. The magical binding around the building and the threat of severe punishments kept out any assassination or kidnapping attempts, but a grey area could have developed if an attacker never intended to hurt you or they felt like what they were trying to do with you was for your own good. It also didn’t do anything to keep out sudden outbursts of anger, usually from two drunken patrons who decided to fight. It was rare, but in those cases, we thanked our lucky stars for our intense security team.

  With them there, hidden in the shadows around the stage, I knew that Arturo and his men couldn’t just grab me. This meant that they also couldn’t stop me from doing my dance and forcing them into my hypnotic clarity.

  I waved elegantly to the packed crowd around me, a smile tightly planted on my face. I didn’t want to see him. I knew it would only make my nerves worse, but there he was.

  Dead center. The best view in the house.

  When our eyes met, an all-knowing smile crossed his lips, and he nodded to me.

  My knees immediately began to shake, but I managed to remain standing.

  Had he always been that handsome? I was only away from him for a few short years, but I could swear in that time, he had grown to twice the size I remembered him being. I had left him when his features were still clinging to their adolescence. Now, he was fully chiseled. Now… he was a man.

  He wore a black, well-tailored, double-breasted business suit, nothing at all like the ethereal clothing I was used to seeing him in while living in our homelands. It shocked me, and I was sure that he, more than anyone else, noticed the change in my facial features.

  I had never seen him dressed so much like a human man. Our style of clothes in the Western desert lands was flowy and loose to help us all deal with the extreme heats. Now, he looked like the stud of a dozen romance novels written by humans that I had read, and suddenly, I understood why the heroines would allow these men to do all sorts of wild and depraved things to her.

  Arturo could do anything he wanted to me as long as he was wearing that damn suit.

  Forcing myself to look down at my soft white slippers, I refocused my energy. If my thoughts kept becoming this clouded, I wouldn’t be able to concentrate enough to put everyone into my trance. Not only would I look like an idiot in front of Arturo, but I would be cut from my life here at the Rouge.

  “My name is Isla. I am from the house of the Night Winds in the land of the Western Fae, and for millennia, my bloodline has perfected a dance that brings a true clarity that no other being on earth has been able to replicate. If you do not wish to be put into this trance, or do not wish to explore the recesses of your undisturbed thoughts and desires, now would be a good time to take a break from the show and head down to the bar. There, you can meet and chat with some of the Nuit Rouge’s other stars, those who have performed earlier today and those who have tonight off. I do warn you that this trance may reveal things about yourself that you do not want to face or accept. You may become angry or upset with what you find within yourself, and for that, I am sorry.” I couldn’t help but, once again, flick my eyes to him.

  Arturo sat as confidently as ever, his posture relaxed, but his eyes were hungry on me. He was a predator, an animal in the wild, garbed in a thousand-dollar suit.

  I shivered again because I knew with full honesty, in this moment, I wanted to be his prey.

  Soft music began to play on a large organ behind me, and I pushed him from my thoughts. Deep within my core, I felt light begin to flicker like a thousand butterfly wings fluttering in my soul.

  That light was not only as delicate as the butterfly wings and would collapse if I tried to grab onto it with too much vigor, but it also would slide from my grasp if I did not reach onto it with conviction.

  I opened my mouth wide to begin the slow, rhythmic song of my people as my body, barely covered in see-through organza and pearls, began to sway.

  Usually, I would not consider myself a coordinated person or even a person who fared well at dancing, but this dance was ingrained in my DNA. My body responded to it instinctually, the way that a newborn gazelle instinctively knows how to graze.

  Slowly and sensually, my hips rotated, my breasts pushing forward, and knowing
that he could see my nipples from where he sat only made them harder. Suddenly, they yearned for his touch in a way I didn’t remember ever yearning for it before.

  When I had left, we were both still clinging to our youth. But now, he was a man, and apparently, sometime in my days spent at the Rouge, I had hit my sexual awareness because I was very much aware of it now. I danced all the more sexually for his gaze, scorching hot on my body.

  The song I sang had no words. Instead, my people gave long, looping calls, throaty sounds that came because of us allowing our inner light to escape out for those around us to see. My head fell back as I felt the warmth of the light sliding its way out of my throat for all around me to see. My body never stopped its rhythmic movement.

  It was imperative that they not break away from me, or they would not properly enter the trance, and the experience would be lost for them. I needed him to have this experience with me. I needed us to both know that this was right.

  The beaded pearls rubbed against my already hard nipples, making my body ache with need, and as the light, now over me, grew in brightness, I knew my body was completely exposed to him and the entire audience.

  So much for the shy girl I had left behind in my homelands. I was bolder now, more able to accept who I was and what I wanted out of life.

  I molded the light with my hands into a large ball of concentration in front of me, changing it to my signature soft pink color before letting it go and setting it free into the audience. Like a thick billowing fog, it reached out to every corner of the auditorium, touching each person sitting within it.

  As I danced, I watched row after row of shoulders relax and eyes begin to glaze over. This was the point in the show I could no longer control. I could not shape what they saw once they were fully immersed in the trance. This fact had saved many of my ancestors from being slaughtered by warlords when, in the beginning of our house line, they sold this talent for lands and protection to build up our family.

  Now, all I could do was dance and watch them reacting to what they found in the inner dwellings of their own souls.

  Of course, my eyes latched onto him. He had opened his suit to reveal a tight-fitting, crisp, white shirt underneath. His big body was reclined back in a relaxed position with his legs limply falling open in front of him. He had entered the trance and would have no choice but to deal with what it brought to him.

  In the meantime, my eyes were drawn to something else completely. With his legs wide open and his suit so perfectly fitted, I could see the unmistakable shape of a large cock running down the inside of his thigh.

  My mouth went dry, and it was a struggle to keep myself dancing. If I stopped now, everyone in the audience would wake up only half-fulfilled. He would only be half-fulfilled.

  Suddenly, in front of my eyes, images danced before me of him fucking me in hard and passionate ways, making me pay for his unfulfillment with my body.

  Arturo was not a man I ever wanted to disappoint. Though, the punishment I saw so clearly in my mind might have been worth it. For the first time in my life, I didn’t push away the thought of him taking my body. I didn’t punish myself for thinking of our bodies intertwined.

  I needed it now more than ever. When my act was over, I would find a way to tell him how I needed him to soothe me.

  As if he could somehow sense my need, I saw his hand slide slowly up and down his shaft over his slacks. His eyes were still glazed over, the thick pink fog still surrounding him and everyone near him, but somehow through all of that, his cock was hard for me.

  Was it a response to my own need, or was his state of clarity the same as mine currently? Was his truth that he needed me as much as I needed him?

  Nothing had ever made me feel sexier. My whole life, I knew that he wanted me, but want came and went with the tide. Need though... need was something that stuck with me. Something I craved. Something I just couldn’t shake away. I didn’t want to be a woman he simply desired because he couldn’t have me. I wanted to be the one woman he needed. I wanted to make his knees quake like mine did. I wanted to make him ravenous for me. I wanted him to be sitting in his seat, hard and parched, panting for me the way my body was so wet while I swayed and fantasized about him.

  The pink fog began to grow lighter, and I knew the gift was beginning to fade. Not even Fae who were our most experienced at doing this could hold the light for very long. It wasn’t meant to be controlled, only borrowed for short periods of time.

  The moment the light fully faded away from white into nothingness, our eyes locked for one split second. Time had stopped, and I stood frozen.

  Chapter Three

  I bolted. I ran as fast as I could out of the backstage area and then from the Rouge itself.

  It wasn’t exactly the reaction I had expected to have, but once his eyes opened and I saw the absolute hunger in them, nerves took over, and without thinking, I just ran. It was well past midnight, and the moon was the only source of light in the forrest surrounding the Rouge, now that the neon signs had been extinguished.

  Running so hard I felt like a ghost floating across the soft earth, my sheer dress billowing out behind me like water.

  Until I felt his presence.

  He was following me. Chasing me hard. Within seconds, I could hear his heavy footfalls and what I knew was his breath on my neck.

  I didn’t know if I wanted him to catch me or not, but that didn’t matter. In one swift motion, both of his arms were wrapped around me, and his lips were pressed to my ear.

  “Stop running from me,” he growled as I struggled.

  “Why did you come here?” I asked, turning to face him when he finally let go of me.

  My cheeks were flushed, burning with the force of the harsh wind whipping against them as I ran.

  Instead of answering, he kissed me forcefully, stealing what little breath I had left in me.

  “I came for you for the same reason you always run from me. This is our fate. I only hope that you can see now that we aren’t meant to do this forever. You’re meant to be with me.” His lips were hot and harsh against mine as I pushed him away from our kiss.

  I was breathless, needy, and confused. My feelings were spiraling, and I didn’t know how to act on them.

  “Just let me kiss you.” He pulled me tightly into his arms again, and the feel of his body pressed to mine made me forget everything.

  How could something so beautiful and simple ever be so complicated? I thought as my body fell into his.

  Arturo broke away and lifted his palms toward the night sky, and a soft mist of rain began to pitter-patter down around us.

  I held out my arms to feel the warm rain, and the droplets that slid across my skin shifted from clear water to soft colors of pinks and lilacs.

  In our realm, while my family controlled the winds, Arturos controlled the water.

  “I’ve never thought of the rain as something romantic.” I looked at him with curious eyes, wondering why he would choose to do this now. What message was he trying to send to me?

  “Maybe I can change that” His strong hands cupped my jaw, and I watched a light orange drop slide down his wrist.

  “Is that what you want? To change me and what I think about the world?” I wanted to sound strong as if I wouldn’t be easily manipulated by him, but I was already shaking with a need I had refused to ever explore before, and I hardly had the strength to stop myself from falling into him.

  “I love everything about you exactly the way it is. I don’t want to change anything about who you are, but I do want to leave my mark on it. I want to open your eyes so wide to the world that I can give you that you’ll never want to run from me again.” Teal droplets clung to his thick dark eyelashes as he stared at me, his gaze paralyzing me.

  “I don’t think it’s just you, I want to run from.” I bit my lip, trying to piece together everything I was feeling and everything I thought I knew about my own reactions. “I think you’re just a symbol for a life I’m not sure I wan
t to lead. You’re handsome and… perfect and everything any woman would want, but do I want it? Do I want to rule as Queen? Do I want to accept something that’s been predetermined for me when who knows what else there is out there?”

  “I suppose I could be a symbol for all of that.” He smirked at me, and I felt my heart jump into my throat again. “You’ve lived away from all of your predestinations all this time, and yet, you’ve never gone off with another man. Never risked anything. You haven’t run any further or explored anything else. I’ve had my men watching you to ensure your safety this entire time, and based on everything I’ve learned, I would say you’ve just been waiting for me to show up and convince you that I am what you need. You can’t judge me by what my family has done just like I can’t judge you for what your family has done, but I know that can be impossible. We share their blood. We are their children. There’s nothing either of us can change about that. What I will say is that your family is as fucked up as mine. They’ve made good and bad decisions just like mine. The people we rule haven’t revolted or risen up to throw my family out because to them, what is the difference? It’s not as if your family is a flock of angels and we’ve enslaved the land.”

  “They’re still my family.” I glared at him.

  “And they’re all still alive. Most of their lands and titles still belong to them. In fact, I’d say you are, by far, the only person in your family stubbornly clinging to negative feelings about this. Before my journey here last night, I drank mead with your father and brothers, asking their advice about how to win you over. Which, so far, hasn’t even come close to working, so they’re a useless lot.” He laughed, and I couldn’t stop myself from laughing with him.

  “It’s not just about my family. It’s about my freedom. It’s about my fear of making a mistake or missing out on something,” I took a deep breath, mulling it all over. “Also, the men in my family line have always been much more passive than the women.”